[OT] iTunes library has strange files after consolidation

[Remco Halderhooter]

I tried posting this in more appropriate forums, but got no replies. Help me, Ableton forum. You're my only hope.

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I've consolidated (iTunes 8.0.2) and notice that some songs won't play any more. When I look at the properties, some of them are pointing to files with the correct name but the incorrect extension (e.g. htm, tif, png). When I 'show in finder', these files with the strange extension actually exist in the album folder alongside the correct mp3 file.

Any ideas how to fix it? I don't want to delete the wrong songs in the finder search window and reload them, as I have a huge library. Also, any ideas what might have gone wrong so I can avoid it in the future? Thanks very much for any suggestions.
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Since posting this on macosx a week or so ago, I've tried a few things. I exported a playlist as xml, corrected the dodgy file extensions, imported the playlist and it all worked. I thought it may miss out the corrected files, as iTunes help stated that files missing from the library would not be included. So should I jump in and "find and replace" all dodgy extensions in the main 'iTunes Music Library.xml' and re-import as 'import playlist'...? Tis a scary thing, the itunes library.

A pat on the back if anyone read to the end of this. And a bigger pat if anyone's got the answer.

[jonny72]

Never heard of anything like that happening before - but I'd go with the solution you mentioned - makes the changes to the .xml version of the library and the import it.

If you're careful the chances of doing any damage are minimal. Take backups before hand and run some utility scripts against the library (there are a couple on Doug's iTunes Scripts I use which check for missing files and files in the iTunes folder but not in the library) before and after and check the output. Then check everything again a few times.

I need to do some major changes my iTunes libraries (to synch them up) and am planning to do it via the .xml version of the library.

[pepezabala]

solution for all itunes problems: songbird.

[Remco Halderhooter]

Thanks for the replies. I think part of the cause may be starting iTunes without the drive attached that has the library. In the past, I'm sure these would just show as 'ghost' files that wouldn't play. Now they seem to have grabbed random files from my MBP hard-drive, and when the external drive is attached and consolidated these all get copied to the iTunes library.

The strange thing is that all of these erroneous files are to do with my printer.

Songbird looks good, but it dropped all of the tracks from the library that pointed at the invalid files. If my library is ever back to normal, I'll give it a go.

[jonny72]

Thanks for the replies. I think part of the cause may be starting iTunes without the drive attached that has the library. In the past, I'm sure these would just show as 'ghost' files that wouldn't play. Now they seem to have grabbed random files from my MBP hard-drive, and when the external drive is attached and consolidated these all get copied to the iTunes library.

Nice simple solution to stop that from happening again - move the iTunes library files to the external drive that holds the library.

[tw1nstates]

Does anyone have a mac Itunes replacement they would recommend.

thanks!